A few years ago we did a project about writing 1/3 in binary: Writing 1/3 in Binary Earlier this week my older son was working on a probability problem about flipping coins and that problem reminded me of that old project. So, today we revisited that old project. We also got a really fun surprise … Continue reading Revisiting writing 1/3 in binary
We are nearly to the end of our Introduction to Number Theory book. In addition to providing us with many math project that are fun all on their own, I’ve been really happy to find so many great and unusual ways to secretly work number sense. The topic today was writing “decimals” in other bases … Continue reading *Writing 1/3 in binary
Last week my younger son read chapter 2 of Jordan Ellenberg’s How not to be Wrong. In that chapter Ellenberg discusses the the nunber 0.999999…. and whether or not it equals 1. We discussed his thoughts on that chapter here: https://mikesmathpage.wordpress.com/2021/01/09/talking-through-chapter-2-of-jordan-ellenbergs-how-not-to-be-wrong-with-my-younger-son/ Today I thought it would be fun to approach the idea from the (slightly) … Continue reading Exploring 0.99999…. = 1 using fractions and binary
I saw an interesting tweet last wee that got me thinking about fractions: Today as sort of a unusual way to play around with fractions I thought it would be fun to try to write some fractions in binary. It has been a while since we talked about binary, though, so I had my son … Continue reading Writing fractions in binary
Saw this tweet from Matt Henderson (via a Steven Strogatz retweet) today: It first reminded me of one of Patrick Honner’s blog posts from a few years ago: Honner’s post plus a lucky coincidence with a Numberphile video inspired a fun project with the boys: Numberphile’s Pebbling the Chessboard game and Mr. Honner’s square It … Continue reading A fun coincidence with our “1/3 in binary” project
Last night we talked about writing in base 3. A long long long time ago we talked about writing 1/3 in binary. Here are those two projects: Pi in base 3 Writing 1/3 in Binary I suspected that the boys wouldn’t remember the project about writing 1/3 in binary, so I thought it would make … Continue reading Revisiting 1/3 in binary
I returned from a work trip to London this week and started a new math chapter with my younger son – decimals. One of the most interesting parts of home schooling over the last four years has been learning how to teach some basic math concepts. Topics such as fractions and decimals are things that … Continue reading Fractions and Decimals in Binary
After seeing a plug for them on twitter I bought the PCMI books. They arrived yesterday: The first book I picked up was Moving Things Around since the shape on the cover of the book is (incredibly) the same shape we studied in a recent project. One more look at the Hypercube I found a … Continue reading Playing around with the PCMI books
I asked the boys what they wanted to talk about today and they said base 16 – I’ve got no idea why or even where this idea came from! The structure of the morning was honestly just off the top of my head, but I think it was a fun little project. Here’s what we … Continue reading Reviewing bases
[sorry this is written quickly and not really edited – I wrote it while my son was at a school event, so limited time.] Saw this really great post today from Geoff Krall (via a Tracy Johnston Zager retweet): It made me think of the two books that I’ve gone back to every now and … Continue reading Two books that I secretly used to build number sense
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